Gov. Nyesom Wike
In a statement issued by Chris Finebone, the publicity secretary of the Rivers State Chapter of All Progressives Congress, disclosed that the Governor of the state, Chief Nyesom Wike, on Thursday, May 19, sought and received approval by the Rivers State House of Assembly to obtain yet another N10 billion loan from a commercial bank.
APC said that while reasons were given for the loans in the past, this time no reason was attached to the loan request before the RSHA approved it.
Below is the statement in full;
"The governor shortly after obtaining the first set of loans purchased a needless N300 million luxury armoured mobile office. Even as that insensitive action has since set tongues wagging, the governor took his friends to Spain to watch the decisive UEFA Champions League match between Real Madrid and Wolsburg of Germany followed by a lavish party to celebrate Madrid’s 3-2 aggregate win because the governor is a fan of Real Madrid.
"For now, the governor and his friends have concluded plans to spend another N105 million ($300,000.00) to go and watch UEFA Champions League final slated for May 28, 2016 in Milan, Italy. Already, groups in Rivers state are threatening resistance to such profligacy by government in the face of hard times the people are going through.
"Back home, public servants and pensioners have gone for months without pay. Local government workers are crying for help because they have not been paid salaries. While the past administration of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi took payment of teachers off the local councils to free up money to pay salaries of council workers and provision of other services by the councils, Governor Nyesom Wike has pounced on council funds and is merely giving out handouts to his Caretaker Chairmen, money not enough for the greed of the Chairmen.
"The APC particularly notes with dismay that this latest N10 billion loan is for the governor to write off the cost of hosting the Peoples Democratic Party national convention slated for Saturday, May 21, 2016 in Port Harcourt.
"We condemn this action by the governor. We do not understand why the governor of a richer state like Akwa Ibom chose not to provide such imprudent benevolence to the PDP. It can only be the product of a fiendishly ambitious mind hoping to ride into powerful prominence within the PDP milieu. But unknown to Gov. Wike, his ambition and the future of the severely torn PDP umbrella will be buried come Saturday. It needs reminding the governor that vanity upon vanity all come to vanity."
The APC called on banks offering endless loans to Wike to desist forthwith because according the party the government is backing such loans with dubious collateral security to the knowledge of the bank officials.
